Big changes at our school

Salaams all,

Hope all of you are in the best of health... tonight is a big night, the beginning of many big nights, please remember us in your prayers and iA we will do the same here is Sham... cant believe how fast time has gone, already 18 days have past in this Great Month, hope each of us feel a sense of progression in our lives iA...

Life here in Damascus has been good... finished the first week of school and oh myyy... many many changes. before we mention the changes, one thing is important, that we all remain positive. The course is new and for some reason people are skeptical, but if you are going to read this blog, then you cant be :)

For one thing, there is no new intake of students... i know, i know.. really sad, we are really sad about it as well, because for the perception of success of this course, there has to be intake of students. what happened? we dont know... we heard rumors that there were no new students before we came, but it was confirmed when we got here...

2 couples dropped out... i know i know... really sad... they both had good reasons iA and we pray for their success... they are really nice people, so no bad feelings towards anyone... we become like a family last year so its sad to see them not here. but this more then anything has been the hardest thing for us to get over..we had a nice community atmosphere here last year, and it is unfortunate that it will not be the same this year...

Sheikh Sami - the director of education - is no longer here with us... this is huge, supposedly he was let go because his position was taken over by new roles which were assigned to others... people dont understand what a big impact this move has..... as far as most of the students are concerned, Sheikh Sami was the rock of the Institute. His akhlaq, conduct, advise, smile were always there and things are no longer the same at our school... For people who dont know, it was Sheikh Sami and Jaffer D. who raised this institute from zero... this one was hard to get over.

They also changed the schedule.. instead of being in school from 8-5, we are in school from 7-1.. big change, frees up our afternoons and this way the complainers have no reason to complain anymore.. last year, there was quite a bit of complaining from students that the course was too difficult, it seems they have catered for them this year and have not done much for those who said the course was fine or even too easy (us) lol....

Have more to say about other things, however the Azaan is going and we have to go.

Take care!!